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Kay Hendrikson
June 9, 2026 |
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The DFL Party State Convention included a vote to add a category called Aging with Dignity to the Party Platform.
As Chair of the Senior Caucus, I was informed I would have 5 to 10 minutes to speak to promote this platform change, however, that was in error, and I was given the usual 45 seconds. No worries. I thought you would like to know what my original content was. Multiple Senior Caucus board members gave me their thoughts to incorporate into the content. It was recommended that I be inclusive to young democrats as well as older MN democrats; and add to the talk hope for the future. Below is the resulting full content I used to promote the passage of the Aging with Dignity platform addition.
Thank you to all of you for being such an integral part of our advocacy group for a community of seniors in MN.
— AGING WITH DIGNITY — MN DFL 2026 State Convention Speech —
Hubert Humphrey stood not far from where we are today, and he said this — and I want you to hear it like it was spoken for the first time:
“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life — the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.”
That was 1977. Minnesota’s own “Happy Warrior.” The conscience of this party. And today — nearly fifty years later — we are still being tested. And today, we answer.
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My name is Kay Hendrikson, I am the Chair of the MN DFL Senior Caucus.
Today, I am asking you to vote yes on the DFL platform category “Aging with Dignity.”
I want to tell you something about the people this Aging with Dignity platform is for. They are not passive. They are not waiting to be saved. They are the same people who marched through the streets in the 1960s — for civil rights, for peace, against a war that was wrong. They carried signs. They were arrested. They put their bodies on the line because they believed in a more perfect union. They didn’t march so that when they turned 70, their dignity would be negotiable.
More than one million Minnesotans are over the age of 65. Twenty percent of this nation will soon be seniors. These are not statistics. These are the people who built the floor you’re standing on.
And I will not lie to you — that floor is cracking.
The safety net that a previous generation fought to build, after industrialization left people behind, is fraying. And we are here, right now, in the window where choices still matter. Where planning still prevents catastrophes. Where Democrats can do what Democrats have always done when the moment is hard: we show up, we act, and we lead.
We are not here in despair. Despair is a luxury we cannot afford. We are here because urgency is not the same as panic.
I want to speak directly to the younger people in this room — because you belong in this fight just as much as anyone.
You are navigating a world with challenges that are not being met. The social contract that this country was founded on — the idea that we are bound to one another, that we care for the whole and not merely the individual — that contract is being renegotiated right now, without your consent. A society that refuses to care for its elders will not suddenly find the will to care for its young. But a society that builds real infrastructure for aging with dignity? That society serves every single age group. Every single one.
I believe in the courage of this party. I believe because I watched Artemis light up the sky and felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time — the sense that we are still capable of wonder.
If we can aim for the stars, we can build a floor of dignity for every human being on this earth. Not a ceiling — a floor. An infrastructure of care is an infrastructure of hope. And together, we build it — not as a divided front, but as transformational agents of a more perfect union.
I am so grateful — grateful for every person in this room. For the elders among us who never stopped believing. For the young who showed up when they had every reason not to show up. For all of you who carry hope as a discipline, not just as a feeling.
Today, I am asking you to vote yes on the platform category “Aging with Dignity.”
Not just as a policy position — as a moral declaration. As an act of love. As proof that the DFL still knows what Hubert Humphrey knew: that how we treat the most vulnerable among us is the measure of everything we claim to be. Vote yes. And carry this fire into November.
Thank you.
Always yours,
Kay C. Hendrikson, PhD
Chair, DFL Senior Caucus.
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